'Oblivion' Director, 'Pacific Rim' Writer Team for AMC Sci-Fi Drama

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"Ballistic City" will be penned by Travis Beacham, with filmmaker Joseph Kosinski attached to direct the pilot.

AMC is going to the future with the creators of original sci-fi movies Oblivion and Pacific Rim.

The cable network home to The Walking Dead and Mad Men is developing a futuristic cop drama from Pacific Rim writer Travis Beacham. Joseph Kosinski, the director of the Tom Cruise sci-fi movie Oblivion, is attached to direct the pilot and act as one of the exec producers.

Ballistic City tells the story of a former cop thrust into the criminal underworld of a city housed in a generational spaceship destined for an unknown world. The concept is described as a blend of Chinatown and Blade Runner.

Beacham (Clash of the Titans) will pen the script and executive produce alongside Kosinski as well as Anonymous Content's Steve Golin, Bard Dorros and Michael Sugar (Oblivion). Kosinski will direct the project should it move to the pilot stage.

For AMC, the drama comes as Breaking Bad's end is rapidly approaching and after the cable net recently revived The Killing for a third season. Sources tell THR that the cabler is eyeing the project as a potential companion for The Walking Dead.

The project marks AMC's latest big swing and joins Gale Anne Hurd's Area 51, period drama We Hate Paul Revere, Navy entry The Terror, military effort The Terror and Thief of Thieves, the latest comic adaptation from The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, football drama The Real All Americans, a potential Goodfellas series and a diamond drama from RidleyScott, among others, in AMC's development pipeline.

Ballistic City comes as AMC is poised to launch new series Low Winter Sun, a crime drama starring The Walking Dead's Lennie James. The net also has scripted pilots Halt & Catch Fire, period piece Turn, and an untitled drama from Scandal's Tony Goldwyn and Richard LaGravanese is in the works.

Kosinski’s Oblivion opens tomorrow domestically. The post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie already is a hit internationally, where it has grossed more than $61 million.

Beacham wrote Pacific Rim, the Guillermo del Toro monsters vs. mechas tentpole made by Legendary and Warner Bros. The movie opens in July. Both movies are part of a wave of original sci-fi projects being made by Hollywood.

Beacham is repped by WME, Anonymous Content and Hansen Jacobson; Kosinski is with Verve and Hirsch Wallerstein.